Ricky Ponting Considered for India’s Head Coach Position

Cricket legend Ricky Ponting, hailing from Australia, has recently disclosed that he was approached to succeed Rahul Dravid as the head coach for the Indian cricket team.

Having just concluded his seventh season as the coach of Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Ponting’s tenure this year was marked by a near-miss at the playoffs.

Despite his successful coaching stints with Mumbai and Delhi in the IPL, and his temporary role as Australia’s national T20I coach, Ponting has so far refrained from committing to a full-time high-profile national team coaching role.

As the search for Dravid’s successor begins, Ponting is among several cricketing greats who have been approached for the role.

“I’ve seen a lot of reports about it,” Ponting told the ICC. “Normally these things pop up on social media before you even know about them, but there were a few little one-on-one conversations during the IPL, just to get a level of interest from me as to whether I would do it.”

“I’d love to be a senior coach of a national team, but with the other things that I have in my life and wanting to have a bit of time at home…everyone knows if you take a job working with the Indian team you can’t be involved in an IPL team, so it would take that out of it as well.”

“Also, a national head coach is a 10 or 11-month of the year job, and as much as I’d like to do it, it just doesn’t fit into my lifestyle right now and the things that I really enjoy doing.”

Other cricketing legends such as Justin Langer and Stephen Fleming have also been linked to the India coaching job.

“I’ve seen a few other names thrown about as well. Justin Langer’s name got thrown in yesterday, Stephen Fleming’s name has been thrown about a little bit,” Ponting noted.

“Gautam Gambhir’s name has been thrown around a little bit the last couple of days as well. But I think it’d be unlikely for me just on the reasons that I’ve given there.”

Ponting, who had his family with him during his recent stint in Delhi, shared a light-hearted moment when he discussed the possibility of becoming India’s coach with his son, Fletcher.

“My family and my kids have spent the last five weeks over at the IPL with me and they come over every year and I had a whisper to my son about it, and I said, ‘Dad’s been offered the Indian coaching job’ and he said, ‘Just take it dad, we would love to move over there for the next couple of years’” Ponting laughed.

“That’s how much they love being over there and the culture of cricket in India, but right now it probably doesn’t exactly fit into my lifestyle.”